Lutz said the man had second- and third-degree burns to about 30 percent of his body. Third-degree is the most serious. The chief believed the man would recover.

Neighbors called 911 at 3:12 p.m. and firefighters and Jackson Community Ambulance personnel went to the area of the man's address on Nottingham Drive on the north side of an eastern finger of Lake Columbia.

They rendered aid, and about 3:45 p.m., a helicopter from Kalamazoo-based West Michigan Air Care landed in a parking lot at nearby Columbia Central High School on Hewitt Road. The helicopter was to take the man to the University of Michigan Medical Center in Ann Arbor. Lutz said the university has the closest burn care center.

Emergency workers used a gurney to wheel the man from a waiting ambulance to the aircraft and the helicopter departed about or shortly before 4 p.m.

Lutz said the man had been doing fall cleanup work and went to check on the fire, in which he was burning leaves or other debris. He tripped and fell face-first into the flames, the chief said.

Burning yard waste is allowed in the township, the chief said, and the man had a permit to do so.

West Michigan Air Care transported the man because the helicopter was already in Ann Arbor and prepared to quickly depart, the chief said.